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  The sound of his voice made Kate miss him more.

  “I just got back. I am missing you so much!”

  “I am missing you like crazy too! This place is like a dump! You are lucky to be in DC”

  “I want to get lucky in DC with you Matt!”, Kate said in a serious tone.

  “I know darling, I am going to do something about this once I complete this assignment. I can’t wait to hold you in my arms again”

  They were both quiet for a few seconds when Matt broke the silence, “Good news though, I think I will be able to come back earlier. The project is going better than we expected and we will be done with it sooner than anticipated”

  “Great! Hurry back before I sleep with Bill. He offered me a trip with him to Hudson today and I am seriously considering his offer”, Kate joked.

  “That frog belly drunk! I thought he was not your type”, Matt laughed.

  Matt hated being away from her, she was lively, and she had a good sense of humor. She could brighten up his day with just a smile.

  “He isn’t, but desperation and deprivation have caused people to do many terrible things in history and I am, but a human”

  Matt laughed, “Ok. Ok. I will be back in no time and ask Bill to keep his hands off you. Do you know, I have been trying to call you for hours? But nothing works in this freaking town”

  “I know, I have tried googling it and nothing shows up”

  Matt was stationed in Koluama II, Nigeria.

  “Kate I”, Matt was saying and then the line was dropped.

  Matt looked at the 50 year old receiver in his hand, cursed it and slammed it to the cradle. The shop owner looked at Matt with a frown on this face, “Mister, you cannot break this equipment. It cost me hundreds of dollars to buy it”

  Matt wanted to laugh out loud, as the phone should not have cost more than 5 dollars, but he did not want to antagonize the shopkeeper as his phone shop was Matt’s only connection to Kate, “Sorry, Philip it will not happen again. How much do I owe you?”

  “9,450 naira”

  “9,450 for a 30 second phone call?”

  “International calls are expensive mister. I will only make 20 naira out of that. The rest will go to the government”

  The ‘government’ was the corrupt police officials who constantly harassed the local shopkeepers and extorted money from them for the so-called protection they offered. Matt was sure that Philip will be making a lot more from the 9,450 naira than 20, but he didn’t argue.

  Matt did a quick calculation. 9,450 nairas came to about $28. He could have talked for half a month with that much money in United States. Matt opened his wallet and took ten 1000 naira notes from his wallet, he carefully counted them again and handed them to Philip.

  Philip licked his lips and counted the money while sweat rolled down his forehead, “You don’t have change mister?”

  “No, Philip, I don’t, and the name is Matthew, you don’t have to call me mister”

  “Ok, mister Matthew”

  Philip opened a small drawer in his desk, with a small key that hung form his neck by a chain. He put the ten notes in the drawer one by one. Once he was satisfied that Matt had given him the right amount, he started counting the change to give back to Matt. It was a slow process and Matt knew that it was painful for Philip to part with money.

  Matt looked around the shop. It was a cramped shop with two fans, that were hooked to an old generator, but Philip never turned them on because that would have cost him money. Instead of the phone booths, there were two battered desks with one phone. One offered international calling facility while the other one was for national calls.

  The shop was always full on the weekends and holidays and there were long queues of people waiting for a chance to call their loved ones. On this particular day Matt was the only customer. Matt and all his team called from this tiny shop as there were no cellphone towers in Koluama II.

  There was no power either. Although there were power cables that crisscrossed the town. But electricity did not run through them.

  The kids used the lifeless poles and cables as cool rides because there were no playgrounds.

  The poles were for their climbing practice and the cables were their tightropes. The little ones, who were too small to climb up a pole and walk on the power cables, used the cables that were broken, as swinging ropes.

  Matt had seen kids falling from the cables and breaking their limbs or sometimes die. But it never stopped others. The kids’ parents were never around, either they didn’t have the time or didn’t care.

  After Philip reluctantly handed the change back to Matt, he sat down in his old 1945 CJ7 Jeep. It was an old Jeep, but it fared well in the town where there were no carpeted roads.

  The town had very narrow dirt roads. When it rained, the streets and roads became muddy with slushy donkey manure and mud. The only motorized vehicles to be seen on the roads were either driven by the police or Shelron employees.

  All the people in the town used donkey carts to travel. That meant that the dirt roads were dotted with donkey dung, with swarms of flies hovering over it. The mosquitos were rampant thanks to open sewage. Matt didn’t mind since it was part of his job to live in areas like this.

  Matt was a petroleum production engineer, in charge of designing pumping equipment for new oil fields. He worked for Shelron. Shelron was a conglomerate of many petrochemical companies that were spread throughout the world both on land and in the ocean. Shelron employed over 50,000 people across the world and was actively engaged in oil and gas exploration in the harshest areas on earth. It had recently been granted the rights of offshore oil exploration near Koluama II, 200 miles south east of Lagos, Nigeria.

  Shelron ran its operations in Nigeria from its head office in Lagos. Initially, Matt was stationed in Lagos but once the construction work on the offshore oilrig started, Shelron set up their field office in Koluama II and shifted their oilrig employees to Koluama II field office as it was the closest town to the oilrig and provided access to the oilrig by sea.

  Shelron field office consisted of three 40 by 20 feet containers. One container had two make shift kitchens, coffee tables, beds for the staff and two toilets. The remaining two had office cubicles for the Shelron staff members with one toilet in each container. There was no internet. The employees were to type their reports on the project’s progress daily before 7 PM on their computers, print it and send it to the head office through the company courier by 9 PM, the same day.

  Shelron had its own diesel generators to provide electricity to its offices. The containers were air conditioned, but Matt could not enjoy the pleasant weather within the containers because he had to be at the off shore oilrig site most of the time.

  There was one satellite phone available for use in case of emergencies only and its personal use for strictly prohibited.

  Over the years Matt had seen many accidents in his line of work. He had seen workers losing their arms or legs, being kidnapped or being burnt but that never deterred Matt from undertaking new assignments because of his passion for travelling and exploring new cultures. Something that had been ingrained in him since he was a child.

  Matt’s parents were career diplomats and when he was young, they had never stayed in one place for too long. By the time Matt was 15 he had travelled to more than two dozen countries and he promised himself that he will never stay in one place for too long.

  His parents died in a car accident in Congo when he was sixteen. Since he could not live on his own, he had to travel to United States to live with his uncle in DC and continue his studies there. In order to feed his wanderlust, Matt chose a career in oil production engineering and was hired as a young assistant by Shelron, soon after he graduated.

  The hours were long, and the job was tough. His job description was not properly laid out and he was supposed to do everything, from managing records, preparing presentations, managing oil drill operations to bringing mail and coffee for his superiors. M
att didn’t mind since he was learning so much. Matt gradually climbed up to the position of senior engineer in the coming years based on his ability to never say no to any job and working hard. His dream of travelling all over the world came true with his very first assignment to Kenya. From there onwards Matt was constantly travelling.

  Matt had fallen in love with Kate the very first time he had laid eyes on her. On the night that they had first met, Matt was having dinner at an Italian restaurant with his date, Caroline Stern.

  Caroline was a new assistant in Matt’s department. She was an instant hit with the male staff members and the envy of the female staff members. She wore very tight shirts with plunging neck line and the shortest skirts available in the market. Men in the office lusted after her, waiting for one of her boobs to pop out of her shirt or for a sneak peak of her ass. She was never alone at her desk and was always surrounded by a pack of men.

  Matt on the other hand was different. He did not want to have a sneak peak of Caroline Stern’s promising assets. He wanted a front row seat with complete access. So, he asked her out as soon as his schedule allowed, and she didn’t say no. In fact, she looked at Matt head to toe lingering for some time, in the middle and said, “Yes, I would love to go out with you”

  When they had finished dessert and Matt had paid the check, Matt’s phone rang. Matt did not want to pick up the phone. All he wanted to do was to take Caroline home and screw both of them to death, but the phone was incessant.

  Matt reluctantly picked it up. It was his boss who was yelling into the phone, “Our pipeline in Beaumont has burst. We are losing thousands of gallons of oil every hour. I want you to take your team to Beaumont immediately, and fix the problem”

  “Yes sir”

  Matt cursed his luck, explained the situation to Caroline and placed a call to Jack on his way out, “Jack I want you to get Billy, Jason and Steve and head out to Beaumont, our pipeline just burst and we need to be there as soon as possible”

  Billy was saying something as Matt opened the door of the diner to head out.

  “I know but we need to make sure the burst is fixed…”, at that exact moment Matt bumped into someone.

  “This was my new coat!”

  He looked at the woman he had bumped into, she was beautiful with blond hair and nice figure and she was trying to dry her coat with an already wet tissue.

  “I am so sorry. I was on the phone, I didn’t see you coming”, Matt said waiting to be chastised by the woman. When he heard her say, “It’s alright, it was my fault too, I wasn’t looking either”

  Matt looked at Kate’s face again, she was not just beautiful she was stunningly beautiful.

  Matt forgot about the phone in his hand with Billy still talking he turned the phone off and put it into his pocket, “Let me buy you another coat”

  “No, thank you”

  “Then at least let me buy you another coffee”, and then added desperately, not wanting to let go of the opportunity to let the beautiful woman go, “I feel really bad, I blame myself for ruining your coffee and coat. I would never be able to forgive myself, if you don’t go out with me. It’s not every day that I bump into a beautiful girl and ruin her clothes. Please”

  Kate looked at the stranger more closely. He looked to be over 6 feet tall, with strong masculine features, a strong chin and deep blue eyes. Kate rarely went out with strangers but there was something about this stranger that attracted her. So, she found herself saying yes.

  Matt took Kate to the Starbucks café and they both ordered latte and talked. After talking to Kate for 20 minutes, Matt knew that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. She was beautiful, intelligent and the most down to earth girl that Matt had ever met. Matt never made it to Beaumont and almost lost his job, but he didn’t mind since he had finally fallen in love.

  Initially travelling all over the world was fun for Matt but now he wanted to settle down and live in one place with Kate. Just thinking about her brought a smile to Matt’s face. He put his hand in his pocket, took out the ring box and opened it. He looked at the engagement ring he had bought from Lagos for Kate and put it back in his pocket again. He couldn’t wait to propose to Kate.

  CHAPTER 3

  Nick was waiting for Kate in the office when she arrived the next day.

  He handed her a card, “This card will allow you access to floor A, that is currently assigned to compilation and testing of drone policing software. Follow me”

  Kate followed Nick quietly.

  Nick and Kate made their way to the elevator.

  Once in the elevator Nick said, “Your card?”

  Kate handed him the card.

  Nick swiped the card against the elevator scanner and pushed the button marked ‘A’.

  Inside the elevator Nick started with the instructions, “As I said earlier, you are being assigned to exploit the vulnerabilities, if any, in the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Program or the drone policing software.

  Should you have any questions or find any vulnerabilities you are to discuss these with Mr. Cooper only. Besides you, there are other vulnerability analysts working on the program too, but they are all working in isolated environment so we can test the program from every angle.

  We just want to make sure we don’t miss anything that can provide an opportunity for some terrorist to enter the program. I cannot stress the importance of keeping this under the wraps. You cannot talk to anyone regarding this program. You cannot take any data from the station you will be assigned to. You cannot copy anything. You are not allowed to take any flash drives or hard drives to your designated station or out of it.

  You cannot take your cell phone into the station as well.

  I would suggest you put a passcode on your phone, turn it off as you would be required to hand it over to the reception desk on floor A.

  You can however carry your purse, which will be scanned and searched by the security team. It should not have any hard drives, cameras, phones or flash drives in it.

  Should you be caught doing anything that is against these instructions or if you try to disclose any work-related information to anyone other than Mr. Cooper you will be dismissed immediately and a criminal law suit will be filed against you in the court of law”

  “I would need you to sign these”, Nick continued and gave Kate a bunch of documents with a pen.

  Kate started to ask Nick about the documents but before she could speak Nick said, “These are standard company documents including non-disclosure agreement, your acceptance letter to your new assignment, the directions I just gave you and a few other standard odds and ends. I will need you to sign on the pages I have put the red markers on”

  Kate started going through the documents when Nick said impatiently, “Now!”

  Kate retorted, “Nick if these are standard company documents I will sign them. But I will need a desk to put this stack on and then sign. I cannot sign them here in the elevator, unless you are offering me your back? In which case I want you to turn around and bend over”

  Kate saw a hint of embarrassment on Nick’s face, “We have a desk in the outside hall, you can sign them there.”

  When they got off the elevator on Floor A, Kate found herself in an open area with a security gate in front of it and a reception window on the side.

  “Follow me. You can sign the documents on this desk, and I will explain the rest of the procedures when you have signed” Nick said pointing to desk on the side of the reception window.

  Kate quickly signed all the pages with the red markers and handed the stack over to Nick.

  “I would need a copy of these documents for myself as well Nick”

  “Of course, I will have a copy ready for you before the end of today. Now if you will follow me.”

  Nick walked to the reception window and said, “If you have a cellphone with you, you are to leave it here when you arrive for work every morning. You can put a passcode on your cellphone now if it doesn’t have one already. T
urn it off and hand it over to the receptionist here. The timings for the reception window are from 7 in the morning to 9 at night.”

  Kate already had a passcode on her phone, so she turned it off and handed it to the receptionist. The receptionist took Kate’s phone and he put it in one of the shelves built into the wall.

  He then took out a card and handed it over to Kate, “Please keep this card with you. You will give this card back to us when you come here to pick up your phone again. If you lose this card, you will have trouble getting your phone back”

  Kate took the card and put it in her purse.

  “Now to the security gates”, Nick said already walking towards the security gate.

  The security gates consisted of two turnstile gates with one guard posted on each end of the entrance.

  “You can use your card to pass through these gates. But before you do that you need to put your purse through the x-ray scanner”

  Kate put her purse on the x-ray scanner beside the gates and walked over to the turnstile gates. She put her card on the turnstile scanner and passed through.

  She picked her purse once she was on the other side.

  Kate looked around and exclaimed, “The security here is like Fort Knox!”

  “This was one of the prerequisites for the drone policing software. The government wanted to make sure that the program did not end up in the hands of the terrorists or anyone else, so these security arrangements are part of the project”

  “Your card will make sure that you have access to Floor A for as long as your assignment lasts. As you can see this card has a validity of 30 days mentioned at the bottom of the card. After 30 days or at the completion of assignment, whichever is earlier, this card will expire and you will no longer have access to this floor, unless Mr. Cooper assigns you another program within this department”

  Kate nodded, although she had not even reached her new office yet, she was already thinking of working very hard so that the company kept her permanently at the gamma testing department.

  Nick guided Kate through a corridor which had numbered rooms on each side. Each door had a “No Entry” sign on it. There were RFID locks on each door.